US Venezuela Maduro
FILE - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores wave after his swearing-in ceremony for a third term at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 10, 2025.
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A new U.S. indictment charges former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with torture and other crimes. The indictment was unsealed Thursday in New York. Maduro was previously charged with participating in a conspiracy to send cocaine into the U.S. He and his wife, Cilia Flores, now also face allegations of human rights abuses during his reign as president of the oil-rich South American nation. On Thursday, Flores’ lawyers unsuccessfully urged a judge to free her from jail and put her under house arrest because of heart problems. Maduro and Flores have been behind bars in New York since early January when U.S. forces seized them from their Caracas home. Both have pleaded not guilty in the drug case.
Ex-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro says torture allegations against him and his wife in a rewritten drug trafficking indictment are false. Maduro told a Manhattan federal court judge Thursday that the indictment contained “false accusations and false testimony.” He and his wife, Cilia Flores, both pleaded not guilty after they were accused last week of leading a state-sponsored repression effort to torture opponents and others, including three Americans. A rewritten indictment says Maduro and Flores approved of torture techniques that included beatings and electric shocks. Flores said Thursday that she is “completely innocent.” The couple was seized from their Caracas home by the U.S. military in a January nighttime raid.
